DR Congo vote result postponed to Friday

KINSHASA (AFP) - The DR Congo's election commission postponed announcing the winner of the country's November 28 presidential election a second time Thursday, saying it would give the result the following day.

"We need to compare the figures received on the results sheets with the ones received by satellite transmission. It's a huge job and we need to do it to assure the credibility and compliance of the numbers we're going to announce," said election commission chief Daniel Ngoy Mulunda.

President Joseph Kabila looks poised to win a new five-year term based on the latest partial results, which put him ahead of main rival Etienne Tshisekedi 49 percent to 33 percent with just under nine-tenths of polling centres counted.

The provisional result announcement, which has raised fears of violence in the conflict-prone country after Tshisekedi said he rejected the early returns, was originally due Tuesday.

The election commission said Tuesday it needed 48 more hours to collect results from around the vast central African country.

Then on Thursday it delayed the scheduled announcement by two hours before postponing it to the next day.

An election commission source earlier told AFP officials were still waiting for some results.

The supreme court, charged with hearing election disputes, must review the result and declare the definitive winner on December 17. Inauguration day is set for December 20.